Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-04-20
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
The Question "Will Women Vote!" EN-.
phaticalIy Answered by One OF Them
in the Affirmative.
4 Lady Tells How Her Sisters Looked and
Acted and Goes for the Demo
cratic Party.
Chicago liter Ocean.

office in cities the same as men.
/ All towns with a population Of $50 OF
over may be Incorporated. Women hav
ing long enjoyed the privilege of school,
suffrage, and most towns being incOrpora
ted, it is readily seen that Kansas is most
nearly free state. So far as voting fol
state and national offices is concerned
the law still reads: "CItizens or those
who have declared their Intention to be.
come so, except rebels, cOnyicts, idiots
and the insane, can vote after residence
! of six months in the state and thirty days
in the voting precinct;" women, by
omission or implication, being classed
with the above irresponsible classes
Registration is required in cities Of the
! first and second class only.
Women have not, heretofore, to any
great extent, aVailed themselves Of school
suffrage.
THE THOUGHT OF MUNICIPAL SUFFRAGE
was new until two years ago, the winter
Just passed, when | caused the bill to be
introduced in the Legislature then assem-
bled. Though there had been no preced-
ing agitation of the subject throughout
the state, as soon as the bill was brought
forward the Republican press and the
great masses of the people seemed to
sanction It's passage; the women from one
end of the state to the other demanded,
by petition, its speedy adoption. Though
but two years interviewed, it became the
law last February by the votes of the
Republicans, all Democrats in the Senate,
and twenty-five out of twenty-siX in the
House, opposing it.
Doubtless the thought Of the utility, as
we'll as the justice of the law, weighed
nightly with Republican Kansans. In
deed, many Of its ablest champions were
free TO declare that there was much legisla-
tiOG in the interest Of good morals in the
state that could not be sufficiently en-
forced without the aid of woman sui
TRACE, at least in all the larger cities.
The oft-made objection that women
will not vote if the franchise is extended
to them, has been forever answered by the
conduct of Kansas women in the munich
pal elections that have just closed. l
have in my possession
SUFFICIENT OFFICIAL RETURNS
from first and second class cities to show
that mere than two ifths of all the regis
tered voters in these April elections are
women, also that not over tWO-tifthS of
men voters, as a rule, register and vote.
It appears from this that women do quite
as we'll as men and as fully appreciate
their privileges and duties as, citizens in
the of their politicalIife. In smaller
cities, where Legislation is not required,
the women have more generally voted
than in the larger towns, in almost every
instance elect:ng their full ticket, for, be
it said to the honor of this new class of
voters, "women's tickets" have been
much in the field, while they have taken
very lively hand IN CauCuses, primaries,
and conventions.
Men have paid greater regard to the
wishes CT women in the selection of can
didates, and in numerous places women
have been elected to school offices, have
been employed in registration offices, and
served on election boards. So does the
vote bring power and consequent respect
1t is worth "milIions" more than "silent
influences" in public matters, as the pres
ent test shows.
THERE HAVE BEEN BUT FEW TOWNS
where women have not COngregated to re-
ioce and pass resolutions setting forth
their sentiments in no uncertain manner.
These expressions have been outsDoken
for principles instead of parties, and men
have been duly notified that partisan
strife shall not take precedence over
clean records and high moral principles
with women voters. As q general thing
the new voters have shown their ability
to pass through the past election, with all
the attendant excitement and schemiDg
and local interests, without forgetting
their high standard as expressed in words;
there have been, however, some eXCep-
lions, which show that human nature is
quite g wOmanly as well as a
manly attribute-its heaviest test. Ore of
my chief tenets in urging the adoption of
this law and its application in Kansas was
to show that by the votes of my sex the
present rule of the vicious and tramp eIe
ments in large cities can be eliminated,
tnat of the whisky alliance.
That my position was we'll taken is proven
by the returns from the present elections,
which in many instances put good men
in power where bad men
HAVE HERETOFORE REIGNED SUPREME
Probably in no place was so trying a
test made as in LeavenWOrth, the largest
city in the state, having q population of
about 40 900. This city has, from its very
been the great final battle
field between the COntending elements Of
good and bad citizenship in the state of
Kansas. It is situated on the picturesque
and winding banks of the Missouri river,
which divided 1t, in the days gone by, be
tween slave and free territory, and in the
midst of which was fought the issue as to
which side shout take her stand. BOr-
der ruffisnism had its life and death here,
so far as the slave question was con-
Cerngd.
Leavenworth is to-day engaged in no
less important warfare between law and
than she was in the old days
of slavery.
Since the adoption of the prohibitory
she has been the cesspool of
the state into which the lawless whisky
element has drifted and utterly defed the
will of the people, earning thereby the
contempt of the great and progressive
state that she continues to disgrace by
her lawlessness.
She has the penitentiary to pour its ex
convicts each day upon her streets; she
has the military prison on the other side
of her, and coal mines with their atten-
dant floating population, which is largely
Polish, Irish and German, and other
influences 10 overcome that make her Diff
cult to bring to high degree